If Aesthetic Didn't Matter ...

I recently told my guitar lesson teacher over text that I chose one tuning app over another because it was prettier. I figured he'd let that comment slide and chalk it up to me just being me. To my wonderful surprise, he texted back: "If aesthetic didn't matter, the world would be a dark place."

To that kind of end, this post is all about the decor endeavors, from floor to walls, in The House!!

A few weeks ago, I decided it was important to work with some of the baker's twine I have, so I decided on a couple of projects. First, I made this: 

One of the art projects we made in our 6th grade art class was a macrame plant hanger. My parents went pretty nutty over it and decided I needed to make many, many more. They literally came home from the store one Saturday and plopped a bag full of macrame cords, beads and hanging rings on a table like it was totally normal. I remember eagerly rummaging through the bag and getting to work because I loved to do it, so that worked out well. I made so many over the years that I basically made this miniature one from memory. I did pull up an instruction page on the internet to get an idea of how long to cut the strings, but I just winged the rest. From here, I just need a wall hook, as the length is a little short for the ceilings in The House, and a plant! I will definitely make at least one more of these because it was super fun! I'd put beads in it like I used to, but beads small enough to look good have the teeny-tiniest holes through which the baker's twine won't fit, so I choose to not drive myself insane.

With the stash of baker's twine I have, I had to make more things. After a little internet investigation, I got some ideas for making looms with cardboard and pulled together two area rugs:

After cutting the slits at the top and the bottom of my cereal box loom template, I simply took the twine and wrapped it around and around and around all the way across the back. These get cut in half on the back and are used to tie and create the fringe. Then, I used the extra, because there's quite a bit of it, to add to the line of fringe to thicken it by tying pieces to the top and bottom rows of the rug. A curved needle comes in very handy to make all parts of this project! Here's this rug in action:

And, I made a smaller one with a smaller cardboard template:

This rug has appeared in a previous post, but I'm just now getting around to focusing on showcasing decorations. Life, amiright?

After I satisfied my urge to use the baker's twine, I decided it was time to get things on the walls! Here are some family pictures in progress:

The five pieces to the right  on the white paper are actually cookbooks in the making, so we can ignore those right now. I used balsa pieces for both the books and the frames, though, so I decided to do it all at once. I'd already printed, microglazed and cut the pictures, so they are here just waiting for their frames to dry. I made these easy on myself and decided to just glue the pictures onto the painted piece before applying polycrylic to make it stick for real. Here's the outcome!

I love the varied color finish on the frame. I just used one coat of acrylic paint which soaked right into the balsa. And, I didn't touch it because I liked the outcome. Directly across from these pictures is ...

... the whole gang! I did make this frame. It seems I missed filling one of the corners. Whoopsie. I love it, though! I made this frame, too:

I really took my time with this one, so it looks most awesome to me! I can fix the other if I want. But, I have yet to trim the outside of the house and to even give it shingles, so let's not be holding breath betting on when I'm going to fix a frame hahahaha.

Of course, not all frames are on the walls in real life, so I made some acrylic ones for some of the surfaces. There are three on these shelves:

And, I have one on the nightstand:

These were ri-dic-u-lous-ly easy! I used a piece of plastic from some product or other -- the kind of packaging where the plastic creates a "window" to the product. This plastic wasn't too thick nor too flimsy. That's the best I can say about what I used. I cut it to size with an X-acto, and I simply bent the end along a metal straight edge to create the picture stand. This plastic was perfect to easily bend and stay put. (A little trial and error on plastics that come in and out of a house daily will reveal what to use!) To put "in" the picture, I smeared clear Tacky glue on the back of the frame and stuck the picture facing out onto it. And, that was that! 

The family pictures really give it the family feel I love!! But, that's not all that's been going on! The journey through the aesthetics continues in the next post!